


Entropy Alternate Ending 1: Reunited

by OfHealingLove



Series: Entropy [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Dark Ending, Entropy Alternate Ending, F/M, child endangerment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-04
Updated: 2018-09-04
Packaged: 2019-07-06 19:49:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15892923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OfHealingLove/pseuds/OfHealingLove
Summary: Madara and Sakura have unfinished business to attend to, and Madara won't let anyone interfere with the culmination of his family.Sakura just wishes he had stayed dead.





	Entropy Alternate Ending 1: Reunited

**Author's Note:**

> This is a 'sequel' of sorts to Entropy; on FFN, it's included as the original ending, but I hated that original ending, so I'm splitting it off. I have a request for another alternate ending that I may do someday in the future. However, this series will be marked complete until that time.

**1.**

While the past had been changed, somehow, the future had not.

Sakura was able to get a few of her answers as the months passed, as it seemed that only she was the one who knew what the original storyline of her village’s past had been. Many of her questions were answered, but still some remained. It was decided that she would probably never know the truth of what had happened all those decades ago, but Madara certainly did.

After his inability to find his beloved for the next six months but equal inability to believe she had died, Madara broke down in grief. He had lost more than one person the day that Sakura disappeared. Completely immersed in his despair, he had agreed to the village that Hashirama proposed, if only for the fact that being the first Hokage would distract him from his loss. He named the village Konoha—he still remembered the name of the village Sakura had spoken of when she first arrived and thought it fitting that he name his and Hashirama’s village after her, in a way.

However, his grief turned into cold, bitter rage and he became isolated from the rest of his clan. This was further compounded when, with the distraction of Sakura’s disappearance, he realized he had not exacted revenge upon the Hyuuga and now they were joining the village. Betrayed by Hashirama’s willingness to allow the clan into the village, as well as the many reasons already known to history, the bitterness between them eventually came to fruition at the Valley of the End.

Madara was similarly defeated here, and history progressed as it would have normally. Tobirama had become hardened and bitter at Sakura’s disappearance. He turned into the cold man that was known to Konoha’s history books, so unlike the caring and almost gentle man he had been with Sakua. He wholeheartedly blamed the Uchiha clan in its entirety for his loss of her, torn by the grief in such a way that he could not distinguish the clan from their previous clan head. In this way, the Uchiha were treated with prejudice by the Nidaime Hokage and furthered the rift between the Uchiha and Konoha as a whole.

Lost in his hate for the Senju, who Madara had never stopped believing had played a part in Sakura’s disappearance, and Konoha as a whole, Madara created the Eye of the Moon plan. Sakura had disappeared without a trace and the only way to be with her again was the Infinite Tsukuyomi, even if it would only be an illusion. An illusory Sakura was better than none, and who knew? Maybe he would start to believe it was the real her one day. The Infinite Tsukuyomi was a way for world peace, yes, but it was also the only way to bring Sakura back.

And, after all, that was the most important part to him.

For Sakura, four years passed. Her life was changed in a way she had never expected and one year later, she left the village with an infant in her arms. She settled down in a small town on the border of Fire Country and Wind Country. Left in peace to raise her child, while protected from afar by Konoha and her friends, Sakura attempted to build a new life as a single parent, working as the small town’s doctor and housing friendly Konoha shinobi who passed through. She thought her ordeal was over with and that she would live out the rest of her life quietly and in peace.

She thought wrong.

 

**2.**

Uchiha Sasuke had never planned to return to Fire Country, much less Konoha, but in order to destroy it, he had to do reconnaissance.

He had recently allied himself with Tobi, also known to the world as Uchiha Madara, but had not been sent here on his orders—no, this was for himself. He wasn’t going to get too close to Konoha, only evaluate how best to get past their defenses as much as he could at this distance. Even with his chakra so expertly masked, he couldn’t chance one of his useless teammates attempting to bring him back ‘home.’

On his way in, he stopped at a small border town for rations. He couldn’t stay long, but it was a civilian town and the chances of being noticed here were low. He walked down the main street of the village, an unpaved road that intersected with several smaller streets and then one other large one to create a town square. Quaint shops lined the largest streets and it was a sizeable enough town as far as residents went. The people here obviously prospered from the shinobi village’s presence and it made Sasuke scoff at the cushy lives all these people led. They knew _nothing_ of hardship—they knew _nothing_ of the cruel village that made them so wealthy.

They were idiots and after he destroyed Konoha, he would destroy this town, too. It was a decision borne purely of spite, but Sasuke didn’t particularly care.

Running through the streets were two little boys and a girl, playing some inane child’s game or some such. To Sasuke’s the surprise, one of the boys looked almost like a trademark Uchiha—he was probably around four or five years old and was short for his age, but Sasuke couldn’t help but wonder if, for one elated moment, if an Uchiha had actually been ferreted away and had actually gone on to procreate with some no-name civilian.

The idea was quickly quashed, because he would have known. _He would have known_.

There was no way that someone of his blood was still alive—he had seen it. He had seen the aftermath of the massacre with his own eyes, had _seen_ the massacre itself through Itachi’s. There was no way that anyone had survived.

Unless…a thought crept into his mind. What if Itachi…? His aniki was not as cruel and heartless as he had been led to believe. It was Konoha’s fault that he had had to do what had been done, so was it all that impossible that maybe he had impregnated a woman during his time with the Akatsuki? Perhaps he hadn’t even known about the child, and since he was always on the move with the organization, the mother would never be able to tell him. It was _entirely_ possible that he was looking at his nephew playing in the streets.

Lost in the world of possibly having family again, even Sasuke’s cold heart was able to thaw enough to at least speak to the child. He would never endanger the boy, and was possibly not even related to him—after all, there was that shinobi named Sai who resembled him so uncannily—but he had to find out.

Sasuke approached the children casually. The boy he recognized as a possible Uchiha noticed him first and immediately stopped playing, which in turn halted all activity. He stood with perfect posture and had a wary guard to him that would have been expected of him if he was raised in the clan.

“Who are you,” the boy demanded bluntly when Sasuke finally stopped advancing. His tone had all the severity of a tiger, but it was ruined by his youth. With chubby cheeks, a furrowed brow, and all the seriousness a toddler could manage, this boy was more liable to scare off a few bunny rabbits than intimidate anyone.

“My name is Hichibachi Toru,” Sasuke lied easily. “What’s yours?”

The other children were curious about the interaction and watched keenly. The boy puffed up his chest and said, “I’m Rei. My kaa-san told me not to give out my last name to strangers.”

Even more intriguing. Feeling closer to excitement about something that was not battle-related for the first time in years, Sasuke went on, “Is there any chance I could speak with your mother?”

“Why?” the four-year-old demanded.

“I…think I might know her,” Sasuke responded. “It is important that I meet her.”

“Are you hurt or somethin’?”

The only sign of confusion on his face was a slight twitch of his eyebrows, but Sasuke decided to play along. “Yes, I think I might be sick.” Inwardly, he was glad that Team Taka was not here right now. They would lose all respect they had ever held for him if they saw him acting this way—to appease a child, no less.

Rei nodded as though he’d known it all along. “Yeah, you walk funny. It was like you had somethin’ stuck up your a-”

“Rei!” scolded the other boy. “My kaa-san says not to talk like that, it’s bad!” The girl, a little older than the two boys, laughed and began to tease him for being a momma’s boy.

Rei ignored them. “Come on. My kaa-san’s in her office.”

Sasuke followed the small boy down out of the town square and to a small green building. It looked to be an office and a home combined, if the large back end were anything to go by. Sasuke double-checked that his chakra was masked on instinct, even though Rei’s mother was undoubtedly a civilian. There was no shinobi in the world who would associate with his brother willingly, and Itachi was not so dishonorable as to force a woman to have sex with him, so it _had_ to be a civilian.

Rei opened the door with a ‘Tadaima!’ and led him into the foyer. There was a small waiting room lined with chairs and a door cracked open to his left. Past that there was a hallway that went further back into what he assumed was a more domestic part of the building. The returned greeting was from a female voice, as he expected, although he had not expected the voice to sound so familiar.

“Kaa-san, there’s a guy out here and he said he’s sick so I brought him to you like you said to,” Rei said all at once, for the first time sounding a little nervous.

“Oh!” A pink-haired woman, wearing a white doctor’s coat, an olive green turtleneck—it was autumn and the air outside was quite chilly—and black pants, quickly appeared out from behind the slightly ajar door. “Hello, how can I-”

They both froze the instant they saw each other. Sasuke’s hand went for the hilt of his sword and Sakura immediately gathered chakra into her fists, sliding into a defensive stance.

“Rei, go to your room,” Sakura said calmly. Rei looked between his mother and Sasuke, clearly debating on whether or not he wanted to listen to his mother. It seemed the boy already had an interest in fighting “ _Now_ , Rei. This is one of those dangerous situations we talked about, okay? You need to listen to what I say right now.”

Rei looked slightly put out but finally made to leave. However, Sasuke drew his sword and put it at the boy’s throat, preventing him from leaving. He maintained eye contact with Sakura, whose face had morphed into a sudden, deadly expression.

“If you so much as dare to hurt a single hair on his-” she began to snarl.

“Who is his father?” Sasuke demanded, cutting her off unrepentantly. He made sure that his sword was at least three inches away from the boy’s neck, because if this was _somehow_ his flesh and blood—although it seemed impossible now, given who the mother was—he didn’t want to hurt him.

“A civilian,” Sakura answered. “Now, if you’re quite finished threatening my family, _get the fuck out of my house._ ”

Sasuke scoffed and turned to leave. “You threw your life away to be what, a house wife to a civilian? Pathetic.”

“I don’t care what you think, as long as you leave. Now.”

However, Rei _did_ care what Sasuke thought. “No way! My otou-san was a super strong shinobi! Kaa-san said he’s famous!”

Sasuke imperceptibly flinched, then assessed Sakura’s reaction. She had gone white, although whether it was from fear or from fury he couldn’t tell, and that alone was enough to condemn her.

“Who is his father?” he demanded again. “And this time, no lies.”

He could all but hear the gears in her brain whirring for a good lie. Finally, she said, “Sasuke, it’s nothing you should be concerned about it. He’s not an Uchiha.”

He almost lost his mask of stoicism at her blatant statement that Rei was not one of his relatives. Denial coursed through him, something he had become close friends with in the recent past. “Who said I thought he was an Uchiha?” he asked, his tone deceptively blank.

Sakura had a panicked look for all of one second, as if thinking that she had given something away. The first statement had almost deterred him, but her reaction now proved that he was right—Rei might not be an Uchiha, but there was more to this than met the eye. “I didn’t think you’d just follow any child home to find out his parentage. He looks like one, but I assure you he is not.”

The excuse was a good one, Sasuke had to admit, but he wouldn’t be thrown off track again. “If he is Itachi’s son, then I have a right to see him,” Sasuke warned, all but ignoring her last statement.

Sakura had the gall to choke on the laughter that bubbled up from her chest, and Sasuke, frayed thin with too many emotions that weren’t his familiar friends bitterness and rage, snapped. After all his aniki had been through, the last thing he deserved to be was _mocked_. He drew his sword rapidly and, with a speed few could follow with the naked eye, fully entrenched his sword through her stomach, making sure not to hit any vital point. “Don’t mock Itachi,” he hissed. Sakura was a medic-nin; he was certain it wouldn’t kill her.

Rei screamed and threw himself at Sasuke, uselessly tackling him. Sakura had a look of surprise on her face as the sword was pulled out of her abdomen and blood began to rapidly seep from the wound and into the fabric of her shirt.

The little boy, screaming and crying, bit as hard as he could into Sasuke’s back. Sasuke was about to restrain him, but suddenly Rei was pulled off him by an unseen force.

“Kaa-san!” Rei sobbed, and it was then that Sasuke saw a complete intact and uninjured Sakura holding her child and soothing him. When he looked back at the Sakura he had stabbed, it had disintegrated into a pile of cherry blossoms on the hardwood floor.

“I’m sorry, baby,” Sakura said, holding Rei tightly and glaring murderously at Sasuke. “Where are your manners, Uchiha? Attacking a woman in her own home? That’s a new low.”

Sasuke was too busy hiding his surprise at the illusion Sakura had cast that not even he had seen through. She had cloned herself—almost _too_ realistically—in order to keep Rei safe while Sasuke was preoccupied. It didn’t impress him, really, it didn’t. But he also knew now that Sakura was not to be trifled with, if she could move at a speed that his Mangekyou couldn’t detect.

 “Kaa-san, my eyes feel funny…” Rei whimpered into her shoulder once he was calming down.

“Here, let me see,” Sakura said, ignoring her unwanted houseguest in favor of her son. When her eyes widened dramatically, the pieces clicked together easily. Rei had seen his mother impaled on a sword, despite the fact that it was ultimately an illusion, and if he _was_ an Uchiha, that was easily enough to awaken the sharingan.

Before Sasuke could move to see if his hypothesis was correct, Sakura pulled Rei close to her and shielded his eyes from Sasuke’s vision.

“So he _is_ an Uchiha,” Sasuke said, her actions confirming his belief.

“Would you just leave?” Sakura spat venomously. “You’ve done enough damage already!”

“Does he know anything about chakra? His lineage? Anything at _all_?” Sasuke asked quietly but incredulously. How could she hide something so important from the world?

“I’m not training him to be a shinobi,” she hissed. “And no. The Uchiha clan is a cursed clan and I never want him to be a part of anything to do with them. This never would have been a problem if you hadn’t shown up!”

“You can’t fight what’s in our blood,” Sasuke returned coldly. “He’ll need guidance. I’m the last Uchiha—I’m the only one who can give it to him.”

“You can go shove your guidance up your ass,” Sakura snarled, seeming uncaring of using such language around Rei, or perhaps she was just that angry. “Get out. Get out, now.” Rei whimpered when she gripped him too tightly in her rage and she apologized, running a hand over his back soothingly.

“He at least needs to be able to turn it off,” Sasuke said coldly, realizing that he wasn’t going to get anywhere with Sakura at this point. Rei wasn’t particularly on his side either, as he had activated his sharingan thinking his mother had been mortally wounded, but Sasuke would not allow his family— _family!_ —to suffer.

Sakura looked for a long moment between the sniffling Rei and Sasuke, then back again. After a long moment, she relented.

“Teach him to turn it off.” Before he could count that as a victory, she continued, “But he won’t be turning it on again, so don’t bother with anything else.”

“You know I’ll be back, Sakura,” Sasuke told her. “Rei has a right to know his family history.”

“You can come back all you like,” Sakura said snidely. “But next time you do, Naruto will be waiting for you. Rei loves Naruto-oji-san and will be more than happy to see him bring you back to Konoha so you can be imprisoned for the rest of your sorry life.” It went unspoken between them that Naruto would never let such an outcome happen, but that was beside the point.

So stunned beyond belief at the fact that there was another Uchiha in the world, one that wasn’t corrupted by Konoha or Tobi—even though Sasuke personally couldn’t piece together how, exactly, Rei had been conceived, and decided he didn’t really want to because hell, the evidence was here!—it was all Sasuke could do to calm himself enough to relay the instructions for Rei to deactivate his sharingan. When the boy turned to him, everything was confirmed. Both of his eyes were blood red, the right with two tomoe and the left with one.

After the boy had successfully turned it off—he mastered it rather easily, given that he had no experience with chakra control—he promptly fell asleep, and Sasuke turned to a weary-looking Sakura.

“You know I’ll be back,” he repeated.

Sakura sighed. “Please don’t do this, Sasuke.”

“I have to.”

She continued to beg him not to return, but he left without another word. Still cradling his nephew in her arms, Sakura could do little else other than watch him go.

 

**3.**

“Where were you, Sasuke?”

Sasuke stared for a moment at the masked shinobi waiting for him in the common room of their hideout. Then he shrugged minutely and began to walk away, not deeming the question worth answering.

“Sasuke.”

He paused at the cold insistence in Tobi’s tone. “I was scouting Konoha.”

It wasn’t a lie, so Tobi would have no reason to question further. While Sasuke disagreed with Sakura that Rei should not become a shinobi—the potential in him should not go to waste—there was no way he would make the boy a target for someone like Tobi. Rei didn’t deserve to be brought into the madness of the Uchiha clan’s current remaining family members, but he did deserve to know the great legacy that the Uchiha clan once was. Itachi wouldn’t have wanted that though. In fact, Itachi probably wouldn’t have wanted Rei to become a shinobi, either, but Sasuke couldn’t agree with that.

“You’re bothered by something,” Tobi went on. It was almost like he had some kind of psychic ability. Sasuke was fairly certain that there hadn’t been any tells in his expression, but the older shinobi could still figure out that he was deeply preoccupied with his thoughts.

“I’m going to get something to eat,” Sasuke deflected. He made his way to the small kitchen in their hideout and opened the pantry, finding only a few edibles and not much that interested him. Only a few protein bars and an apple that was starting to brown. There wasn’t any cured meat, which was what he wanted. Perhaps he should go out hunting. There was plenty of small game in Grass Country.

Before Sasuke could take a step towards the hidden front door of the hideout, Tobi was in front of him. To his credit, Sasuke did not flinch.

“Tell me, boy.”

“It doesn’t affect anything,” Sasuke said, knowing that there was no point in telling Tobi that there wasn’t anything bothering him now that Tobi knew he was hiding something. He just wouldn’t tell him what it was.

“You are lying.”

Sasuke frowned at the older shinobi. “One of my teammates has a child,” he said. That should clearly be enough to bother him. The fact that the child was an Uchiha and his nephew had nothing to do with it.

Tobi cocked his head at him, some of the playful, childish persona coming out. “The Kyuubi is in no position to be starting a family, so it must be the other one. What’s her name again?”

“Why do you care?” Sasuke snapped, pushing past Tobi. Tobi allowed it, following after him like a puppy.

“Tobi wants to meet Sasuke-chan’s kohai! Sasuke-chan never talks about his teammates and Tobi wants to know more!”

“Fuck off,” Sasuke muttered. He didn’t care about either of them—he would swear this on his very life—but still, Sasuke didn’t want Tobi to get interested in Sakura and find out about Rei. Sasuke didn’t even think Tobi knew Sakura’s name, and Sasuke wasn’t about to go telling it to him. Not when Rei could get caught in the crossfire. If Sasuke had noticed that Rei was an Uchiha, there was no doubt that Tobi, unofficially Uchiha Madara, could make the same connection.

“Sasuke-chan is saying some very mean words,” Tobi said, his tone no longer that of a child’s but rather of a disapproving elder. “Now I know you’re hiding something. Don’t make me beat it out of you.”

Sasuke, while he knew he was very skilled, had never actually been able to land a hit on Tobi. The space-time jutsu was a real pain in the ass that way. If Tobi wanted to beat it out of him, though, that would be what would have to happen.

Then, before he could tell Tobi that he could try if he wanted, Sasuke realized Sakura was not in Konoha anymore and Tobi didn’t know that. He could give a name without revealing the secret that was Rei.

“Haruno Sakura,” Sasuke said coldly. “That’s all you need to know.”

At the name, Tobi suddenly stiffened.

“Impossible. It can’t be.”

Sasuke looked at Tobi like he was crazy. “Her name is Haruno Sakura,” he repeated, as if talking to a very slow person. “She’s not important at all.” _Is she?_

It was impossible to read Tobi’s expression because of the mask, but it was clear that he was very tense. Without saying another word, Tobi phased away, leaving Sasuke to internally panic.

Did Tobi know something that he didn’t? Did he know that Itachi and Sakura had somehow known each other enough to get her pregnant? Did he-?

* * *

 

Sakura hummed lightly as she set Rei’s small clothing out to dry. Her little boy was playing in the backyard with his two friends Kanna and Yorushi, passing back and forth a red ball in some kind of made up keep-away game. Rei had the reflexes of his thrice-damned father and was always in the middle, because even though he was the shortest, he was also the fastest and the strongest. Sakura was disturbed by this because he had no real training, but still had the quickness and intelligence of a modern day shinobi genius.

She was afraid it wouldn’t take all that much honing to make him a great shinobi. That he might follow in his father’s footsteps was not a concern to her because _she_ was the one raising him and Madara would never be a part of the picture now. She would make sure of it.

It had been a hard decision when Tsunade had told her that she was pregnant. The only man who could be the father was Madara, and she hated that bastard with every fiber of her being. At the same time, the moment she knew she was going to be a mother, instead of dread filling her, she had felt only warmth and love in her heart. It didn’t matter that Madara was the father—in her eyes, he was simply the sperm donor. It had been a hard decision in that to everyone’s knowledge, Uchiha Madara was actually still alive. She didn’t want to give him any reason to think to find her, even though she had never let him know she was from the future. No matter how smart he was, he would never make the connection. She had caught up on history notes—it was clear that Madara had become broken at some point, that he had gone bad earlier than in the original timeline, and she was pretty sure that it was because he thought she was dead. Perhaps the sorrow was not over her—after all, he had not truly cared about her. He had looked at her as an object, something shiny he wanted to obtain. No real love could result in rape, that she knew.

But she was pretty sure that he had seen the new chakra signature growing inside of her and losing a child would surely break anyone, even a man as heartless as he. The timeline fit that conjecture.

Either way, she was certain that he thought both she and their—no, _her_ —unborn child was dead. That had broken something in him. But, upon remembering her encounters with the supposed Uchiha Madara in this time, she was certain that whoever Tobi was, it was not _that_ man.

Before she left Konoha, she had made this clear to Tsunade. She had stayed only long enough to give birth, name Naruto the godfather and Ino the godmother, and then packed up and left the village with a small bundle in her arms. She was wealthy enough from her savings to buy a house, and now she survived off healing civilians passing through the border town she lived in. She didn’t use chakra, of course, as she couldn’t risk healing an enemy of Konoha, but there was plenty she could do as a doctor without using chakra.

Naruto had visited plenty and Rei loved him dearly. Ino wasn’t as frequent as she had steady work with the Torture and Interrogation unit, apprenticing under Ibiki, but she still made time to visit at least once a month. Now, however, the Akatsuki were getting a little more desperate, having just lost their two immortals, and Naruto was forced into hiding. Rei’s godparents visited very little, much to both mother and son’s disappointment.

Frowning, Sakura jabbed one of the clips a little harder into the clothesline than necessary. Those stupid bastards never knew when to give up. She wished that she and Rei could just live in peace, but until Sasuke was returned to Konoha—and banned from ever seeing Rei again—and the Akatsuki defeated in their entirety, she would never have peace.

Suddenly, her head snapped to the north and she focused her chakra.

That was a familiar chakra signature. It was being hidden, but poorly, and she recognized it as the one that had inadvertently sent her to the past in the first place.

“Rei, honey,” Sakura called, as calmly as possible. “Playtime’s over. Let’s go inside.”

“But kaa-san!” Rei protested.

“ _Now_ , Rei,” she said sharply, trying but failing to hide her concern for the situation.

Sasuke found out about them a week ago. Would he really go tell that madman about their whereabouts? Suddenly, Sakura regretted letting Sasuke leave. She wasn’t sure if she could have truly defeated him—not even Naruto had been able to do that—much less detained him for the length of time necessary to get him to Konoha, but she realized that she definitely should have tried.

She began to make a mental checklist of everything they needed to go on a surprise camping trip.

“Fine!” Rei said with a pout. Kanna and Yorushi followed their unofficial leader to the back gate, where he sent them off to play on their own. Rei was clearly not happy about the time with his friends being cut short, but Sakura couldn’t really feel any sympathy for him right now. This was quite possibly life and death.

She lead Rei inside. “Go pack your things,” she said. “Like when we go camping. Be quick, though, because this is a surprise camping trip and we have to leave in ten minutes.” She tried to keep her voice cheerful, and thankfully, Rei was suddenly too excited about a camping trip to complain or pout anymore. Thank kami for children’s short attention spans.

“Yes, kaa-san!” he cheered, before running up the stairs to his bedroom.

Sakura had been preparing for the eventuality of danger since the day Rei was born. For his fourth birthday, she took him on his first ‘camping trip,’ which was a glorified way of teaching him to survive in the wilderness in case danger was near. With her skill and his independence, they made a good team, even though she wasn’t training him in the shinobi arts. She had taught him what self-defense techniques she thought might come in handy, but she had never so much as shown him ninjutsu outside of her healing.

Just as Rei was toddling down the stairs with his backpack ready, the air in front of Sakura shimmered and suddenly, the orange-masked shinobi appeared in front of him.

“Hi, Sakura-chan!” the bubbly voice said.

Sakura said nothing, instead lunging at him with a chakra-filled fist.

Tobi was too quick, though, and she went right through him.

“Tobi doesn’t want to fight!” the shinobi whined. “Tobi just wants to meet Sakura-chan’s little boy!”

“Stay away from my kaa-san!” Rei yelled, running towards his mother, having started to come down the steps once he finished packing. Sakura hysterically thought that Rei had a reckless protective streak in him that had no doubt came from Naruto.

Sakura darted forward to Rei when Tobi’s gaze averted to him, but he made no move to attack. Pushing Rei behind her—she’d die before she let anything happen to her baby—she looked hard at the masked man.

“What do you really want?” she demanded. She wasn’t a kunoichi of Konoha anymore and her first priority was to survive and protect her son, not her village. She was desperately outmatched here, so if Tobi really just wanted to talk, she would have to let him talk.

“Rei-kun looks a lot like his father,” Tobi mused.

Sakura could feel Rei perk up, despite the dangerousness of the situation. She had never told him much about Madara, and never intended to. He didn’t need to know about the man who had nothing to do with him other than conception.

“You know nothing about his father,” Sakura hissed. “Is that all you wanted? Feel free to leave now.”

“Rei-kun doesn’t know anything about his tou-san?” Tobi whined in that ear piercing childish voice. “That’s just mean! Rei-kun deserves to know about Madara-sama!”

Sakura froze for split second before saying, “Madara is not his father.” It did not pass her notice that Tobi had all but admitted he wasn’t Uchiha Madara. However, it didn’t make all that much of a difference, she thought. If Tobi thought Madara was Rei’s father, and knew that Sakura was the mother, it would be clear that Sakura would know that Tobi was not Madara. There was no need for secrets like that.

Tobi cocked his head, looking confused. “But, but! He looks so much like him!”

“Madara is not his father,” Sakura repeated. Who knew what this madman would do if it was confirmed that Uchiha Madara, founding father of Konoha, was the father of Haruno Rei? It would be disastrous.

“If Madara-sama isn’t Rei-kun’s tou-san, then who is?” Tobi asked. Sakura knew she was not imagining the dark undertone in his voice.

“Does it really matter?” Sakura hissed. “If you really want to know, it was a civilian. He’s dead now, though.”

“But kaa-san, you said-”

“Hush, Rei,” Sakura said sharply. Tobi, unfortunately, didn’t miss the boy’s words.

“Tobi thinks Sakura-chan is lying,” the masked man said. “But Tobi doesn’t want to make Rei-kun and Sakura-chan sad, so Tobi will leave now.”

“Good riddance,” Sakura said, but she was surprised when Tobi actually phased away.

“Kaa-san,” Rei whimpered. “You said tou-san was a great shinobi.”

Sakura knelt in front of Rei so she could look in straight in the eye. “Rei-kun, your father _was_ great shinobi. But you can’t go telling people that, because they will want to target us to get at him. Do you understand?”

“Why isn’t he here, though?”

Sakura hated the fact that she had lied to Rei, told him his father was still alive, but it was something that had inadvertently happened and she couldn’t fix it now. She would when he was older though, certainly.

“Your tou-san is a very busy man,” Sakura said. “He wants so badly to be here, but he’s helping save the world right now. You know that Naruto-ojii-san has bad people after him, right? Your tou-san is helping with that.”

Okay, so maybe she was laying it on a little thick. But if this unseen ‘tou-san’ died in the war, there would be no less tears than if she told him right now that he was dead. This idea of a loving, brave, heroic tou-san was much better than a murderous rapist. She would die before she told Rei that she had not intended to have him; that she hated his father and was glad he was dead.

Rei didn’t need to know these things, in her opinion.

“Now,” she said, changing the topic before Rei could ask any more questions, “You ready to go camping?”

“Yes, kaa-san.” Rei was deep in thought, but at least he had been raised with manners.

“Good. Let kaa-san just finish packing and we’ll leave, okay?”

“Kaa-san, I never pack faster than you! Ha, I win!”

Sakura smiled and stood, patting her little boy on the head. “I guess you do, don’t you? Well, how about this—I’ll buy us some dango on our way out of town. Sound good?”

Rei ran to the front door to wait, but it was clear he was still thinking about his father.

* * *

 

To Madara, death was yet another thing that had to be endured. It wasn’t all that different than life, in his opinion. Yes, his senses were muffled like he was covered in thick wool, but it wasn’t so bad, all in all.

Death was like a watered down version of dozing, in his opinion. He dreamt of his past life, but he was also aware that he was dead. He had felt death dig its icy claws into him who knew how long ago, but he had an assurance that no other spirit had; he knew that his time in this plane, in the netherworld, was limited. Eventually, Obito would bring him back to life and he would be once again a part of the living world.

And he would see her again soon, albeit only through the illusory world of the Infinite Tsukuyomi.

Despite himself, he was bothered by that. He wondered what their unborn child would look like in the dream world. Would it be a boy or a girl? Would it have his eyes or hers? He didn’t care that there was the possibility of one of his children having pink hair, not at all—it would be yet another sign that Sakura was his, that he had _made her_ his. In the Tsukuyomi, she would love him, and the only thing that stung about that was that she hadn’t loved him in life. However, she had chosen him over Tobirama, and perhaps that was just as good as love. Even if she proclaimed to love that bastard, she had given Tobirama up to be with _him_. She would have come to love him if they had been given the time together. Madara was convinced of this.

And their child would have been born, and he would have made sure there were more. He would have had a family with her, would have made her and their children happy. But she had somehow disappeared and he had been left broken, betrayed. It was the only reason he agreed to form Konoha—because Sakura would have wanted it, because Sakura had used that name, because Sakura was no longer there and he knew he had to live on.

Whatever had happened to her, though, he was certain she hadn’t died. Not then, at least. By the time he had died, he had certainly outlived her, but in the Infinity Tsukuyomi, it wouldn’t matter. They would be together again, all of them as a family. The Tsukuyomi would even allow them to have more children, if that was truly his desire.

It was.

Suddenly, slowly, he felt a pull on the muffling of his senses. It was subtle at first, but then he became aware of cool, dank air around him, the sound of breathing, and the dripping of water onto wet stone. Madara blinked once, twice, and then opened his eyes.

Obito stood in front of him, looking the same as he had the last time they had seen each other before Madara died.

“You failed me,” were his first words once back in the land of the living. He was very aware that he wasn’t breathing, that his heart wasn’t beating.

“I know,” Obito replied easily, but without guilt. “Nagato is dead. It will take time before you can be fully resurrected.”

Madara stared at his hands. The skin was smooth, but looked cracked. “What is this jutsu, then?”

“The Edo Tensei,” Obito answered. “I would have waited, but things have changed.”

The elder looked up sharply. “What, exactly, has changed?” he asked quietly, dangerously. Nothing was going to stop him from enacting the Infinite Tsukuyomi; from being with Sakura again.

“There is a Haruno Sakura living in a small town outside Konohagakure,” Obito informed him. “She fits the description of your woman…and she has a child that is very likely an Uchiha.”

Madara was silent for a very long time as he considered the likelihood of this occurrence. There was tension building in Obito’s frame, but Madara ignored it.

What were the chances of time travel? Konohagakure had been founded by himself and Hashirama, but hadn’t Sakura been the one who had given him the name? Madara wasn’t stupid, but he had never considered time travel to explain Sakura’s random appearance into the Warring States Era. He had never made the connection as to why her clan had been unheard of, how she had gotten shinobi training when she wasn’t part of a shinobi clan, or how she knew of certain things.

But if she was from this time...it answered a lot. Why she had hated him on sight—because Tobi had been masquerading as himself. Why she had deflected his answers so ardently—because she knew what he would do with knowledge of the future, and possibly knew more about him than he did. Why she had clung to the Senju—because in her time, Hashirama and Tobirama were the proclaimed ‘heroes’, while he was the villain.

“She has a child?” Madara asked, needing confirmation. How long had he been dead after she returned to her time?

“His name is Rei,” Obito said. “He looks very much like an Uchiha, but I cannot confirm because I have not seen him with the sharingan. However, Uchiha Sasuke was trying very hard to protect the boy, so I can only imagine Sasuke knows more than I do. He will not speak of it.”

Madara nodded. It only made sense. Uchiha children were a rare commodity these days after the Uchiha massacre and Sakura was certainly protecting Rei with all the instincts and fervor of a mother tiger.

Just like she should.

He hated to ask it, would shed the blood of hundreds if it were any other answer than what he was looking for, but it had to be asked. “And you are certain that this is not another man’s child?”

Tobi shifted very slightly, but it was a clear sign of discomfort. “I cannot confirm nor deny.”

If he had been alive, Madara would have felt blood pounding raucously his ears. He would have felt his heart racing in fury and the need to kill. Sakura would never do something so horrible as to abort their child, would she? She was a very skilled medic, so she would certainly know how to do so painlessly.

A rare kind of rage filled his chest. If she had killed their child, only to replace it with another…he wasn’t sure if he could ever forgive her. He would still love her; he would always love her. But he would hate her, too.

Quickly, he henged into an average looking shinobi before masking his massive, limitless chakra.

“Watch Sasuke,” Madara said. “Keep him away from them.”

Obito nodded warily, not commenting on Madara’s intentions.

Madara took off to find his love. He only prayed, for the child’s sake, that the boy was his.

Because if he wasn’t, he would kill him.

And Sakura would pay.

 

**4.**

The moon overhead was bright and full. Sakura sat on top of a familiar hilltop near her once-home, watching the cloudless sky and its twinkling stars. Rei was sleeping at their camp fifty yards away, certainly within hearing distance but safely ensconced in the forest. It was a risk to be out in a clearing like this, especially when she had a feeling that someone was watching them, following them, but she had places a myriad of traps and genjutsu over their temporary camp in order to assure that none stumbled across them inadvertently. If someone _was_ , in fact, following them, she wasn’t going to draw them out while she had her little boy with her.

Sakura stared up at the moon quietly, her ears listening keenly for any noises not meant to be in this forest. She berated herself even as she did this; if only she had kept up this same vigilance when she was here with Tobirama, perhaps she wouldn’t have been in this position. She didn’t regret Rei, but she couldn’t say that she wished she hadn’t been raped. If she had only stayed alert, if only she had been quicker…

Well, Rei might just have silver hair instead of black, and he might have been a Senju. She loved her little boy no matter his parentage, but how wonderful would it have been if she had been able to keep a little bit of her first _true_ love with her in her passage through time?

Wistfully, she sighed and tucked a short strand of hair behind her ear. Her knees were pulled up under her chin and her arms wrapped around her shins, a protective fetal position that she had taken to assuming when she was bothered. She wasn’t sure why she had chosen this spot to stay in, nor could she fathom why she wanted to bring up ghosts of the past, but there was something to be said for the fact that she still loved Tobirama. The hurt wasn’t as deep, nor did it cut as sharply anymore, but sitting here was like pouring salt on a reopened wound. It served no purpose except to hurt her and at the same time, she relished that pain. How did Tobirama feel, knowing she had chosen Madara? She hadn’t been able to explain anything; she had just vanished.

If there was anything she hated Madara for, more so than even the rape and the torture of the Sworn Loyalty seal, it was for forcing her to hurt Tobirama just so she could preserve the timeline.

What if she hadn’t, though? What if she had just let the Uchiha die in battle against the Senju? Just let the whole cursed clan fade away into nothingness…

Sakura sometimes wondered. This was not a new thought for her.

Suddenly, a twig snapped about twenty yards to her left. She quickly turned her head and gathered chakra into her fists, even though she was almost certain it wasn’t a shinobi. No one worth her time would make such a ridiculously genin mistake.

Frowning at the silence that had suddenly taken over the forest, Sakura stood and primed herself for battle. It would surely be swift with someone who was as unskilled as to snap a twig, of all things, but a fight was a fight nonetheless, and it would be _her_ mistake if she underestimated someone.

The sound of the footsteps approaching was deliberate and the form that was appearing in between the rays of moonlight was frighteningly, terrifyingly familiar. Sakura froze for all of one moment, her brain quickly processing that _no, he was dead, he died, dead dead dead_ before seeing the eerie glint of the Eternal Mangekyou sharingan.

Before she could even acknowledge that what she was seeing was impossible, Sakura was running toward camp. She had to get Rei to safety; they had to _run_.

He appeared in front of her before she had even reached the cover of the trees.

Sakura had gotten stronger since her time in the past. After she had been so soundly beaten by Madara, as well as the Uchiha men who had stolen her away from the Senju and right out from under Tobirama’s nose, she had dedicated herself to her training. Of course, her pregnancy had hindered her for the first seven or eight months, but afterwards, she had taken to training with Tsunade every chance she had gotten. Then she had trained with others—Gai, Kakashi, Neji, Naruto, and so forth. Only Tsunade and a very few others knew of the truth of Rei’s parentage, and even fewer knew how he had come to be. Still, no one questioned her need to become stronger. Now, while she wasn’t sure she could beat Madara, she knew that she could put up a much better fight than she had when she was first sent to the past.

Therefore, as he appeared in front of her, she had already prepared her chakra-filled fist, cocked back to land an injurious wound in his abdomen. A mere split second before impact, Madara flickered away. She sensed his presence behind her—she thought perhaps this was an aftereffect of her experiences with him—and pushed through the punch before somersaulting away and landing on her feet.

She had so many questions: how was he here, why was he _alive_ , what did he want—but she was afraid she knew the answer to the last, and she wouldn’t ask it. In the moonlight, he didn’t look any older than he had when she had first met him, and she _knew_ that was impossible. But these questions would never be answered if she had a choice in the matter. She wanted nothing to do with him.

Growling, she flew at him again, and this time her speed was enough that he was forced to block her blows. At least she hoped that was the case—otherwise, it meant that he was indulging her, allowing her hits to connect with his forearms, and that was not only insulting but frightening.

“I’m not here to fight, Sakura,” he told her when she sent a roundhouse kick towards his head. He ducked and dodged, but did not disengage.

“Shut up!” she screeched, and it was then she realized how fast her heart was beating and how sweat had begun to bead on her forehead and run in rivulets down her spine. In her adrenaline rush, she hadn’t realized just how terrified she was.

One chakra laden fist connected with his abdomen, and whether it was because he allowed it to or if she had simply improved that much was anybody’s guess. However, it was enough force to rupture all his internal organs and would kill him in mere moments’ time, but at least it would be painful as all hell before he died.

She froze when he was sent flying back, surprised that she had somehow landed a fatal hit.

However, he landed on his feet, stood, and then stared down at the hole in his armor. Then, to Sakura’s shock and horror, it seemed his body knit itself back together in shards and flecks that looked like paper reconstructing itself.

“What are you,” she whispered, terrified. That had been a fatal blow, and to her knowledge, Madara did not have any special regenerative properties.

He looked up from his abdomen, now perfectly healed, and made eye contact. A small smirked played at his lips at the shocked expression on her face, but shortly after his mouth flattened into a grim line and he suddenly disappeared.

Sakura waited for a moment with bated breath, but he did not reappear. Realizing that she had somehow been given a reprieve, she inhaled deeply to calm her nerves.

“Kaa-san!” Rei shrieked.

Cold tremors wracked her spine and she was running doggedly towards her son. How did Madara know she had a child? Was that why he was here—to see Rei? _Did Madara know that Rei was his son?_

Heart pounding fast enough to potentially give her a heart attack, she sped through the forest until she reached the small clearing where they were camped. As she had expected, Madara was standing there, staring down at Rei with an unreadable expression.

“Calm down, child,” he said, sounding unimpressed with Rei’s fear.

“ _Get away from him!_ ” Sakura hissed, quickly coming to stand in front of her son. It put her in closer proximity to Madara than she would have liked, but she would do anything to protect Rei.

The expression on Madara’s face went unchanged. “Whose child is he?” he asked calmly. He didn’t seem perturbed in the slightest at Sakura’s ire or Rei’s wariness, which bothered Sakura on a level that she refused to understand.

“Certainly not yours,” she growled back. There was no way she was letting this bastard know that Rei was his, too; she didn’t want to give him a reason to stick around.

Madara’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “Then who?” he asked, his tone frigid.

“A civilian,” she replied hotly, telling the same lie she had told everyone since she found out she was pregnant. “No one to be concerned about.” She fervently hoped Rei knew better than to contradict her after what had happened with Sasuke.

Fortunately, Rei held his tongue. Madara glared at her, looking surprisingly disgusted with her. It sent her stomach into knots and she was suddenly afraid for her child’s life.

“There’s no reason for you to be here,” she told Madara, her voice trembling despite her best efforts. “Rei and I are happy. We don’t need you here ruining that.”

“You forget that you are mine,” Madara replied, his tone dangerous. “Bastard son or not.”

Of course, Rei found fault with the fact that Sakura and his fictional father were not married. “I’m not a bastard!” he cried, running out from behind his mother’s back. “Kaa-san’s married to the strongest shinobi in the world!”

And suddenly, everything went to shit.

Madara’s expression tightened and he lunged at Sakura, and given how close they were and the fact that if she moved, she left Rei open to attack, she couldn’t escape when he grabbed her by the wrists and pulled her into him. Sakura froze, caught in his grasp, and didn’t even think to struggle.

“Married to the strongest shinobi in the world?” he murmured into her ear, out of Rei’s hearing range. “I hope you are prepared to face your lies, because any child of yours that is not also mine will die by my hand. Last chance— _is he mine or not?”_

Overcome with panic that Rei would die if she didn’t tell the truth, terrified tears leaked out from her eyes. She collapsed in on herself and whispered urgently, “He’s yours! He’s yours, please don’t hurt him!”

Sakura didn’t hear Rei’s alarmed gasp. She didn’t see Madara’s features soften minutely as he looked down at her, eyes never leaving her trembling form. She barely felt him pull her into a tight, smothering embrace that normally would have made her struggle against him. She noticed a cloying, too-sweet taste on her tongue that was disgusting enough to make one gag, but she had no reaction. As she was pulled into Madara’s chest, she smelled the scent of death—not the pungent smell of a rotting corpse or anything so disturbing, but rather the bittersweet scent of a life brought to an end.

It seemed that all her senses numbed for a long moment after that, before she was brought back to reality by Rei yelling, “Stop making my okaa-san cry!”

Sakura sniffled, taking a deep breath to regain her composure, and then stiffened when she felt Madara’s formidable embrace.

“Quiet, child,” Madara commanded, his grip on her never wavering. More out of fear than any sense of accepting his affection, she didn’t try to push him away.

“Stop! Let her go!” Rei continued to shout. There was the sound of pummeling and she could feel the minute vibrations of Rei attacking Madara’s leg—after all, that was the only part of the man he could reach—and she realized that she didn’t know how Madara felt about having a son. He hadn’t shown any disapproval so far, at least not after she had admitted that Rei was Madara’s child, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t harm Rei if the boy became too much of an irritant.

“Rei, stop!” she said, more sharply than she had intended. When she looked down at him and made eye contact at last, she was able to see how frightened her son was. His eyes were wide and defiantly fearful, and he was looking to her for reassurance.

“But Kaa-san-” he started, but Sakura shook her head. When she pulled away, she didn’t expect to be released, but Madara actually let her go. She sent him a vaguely confused look, but wasn’t about to stare a gift horse in the mouth.

She paused for a singular moment, quickly assembling the facts of the situation she found herself in and then assessing her options.

Sakura loved her son more than anything; before he had been born, she had loved him already as a mother loved her child, but the moment he was in her arms, she knew she could never love anything or anybody more than she loved Rei. Nothing could change that fact, either. She would do anything to make sure her son was happy and safe.

Madara was Rei’s father, regardless of the circumstances of how he had come to be. As far as she was concerned, Madara had been nothing but a sperm donor, and this she believed wholeheartedly. The question was, did Rei feel that way? He was enamored by the idea of a strong shinobi father who would one day return from the war. He wanted a complete and whole family; he wanted the picturesque home life that any child would want.

But what he didn’t know was that Sakura hated his father. She hated Madara with every fiber of her being, and while her pain about the situation with Tobirama had dulled over time, what she felt for Madara never had and most likely never would.

So here was the question: was she willing to sacrifice her own happiness to give Rei what he so desperately wanted?

It disturbed her how little thought the answer required.

“Rei-kun, honey,” she said, bending down so that they were eye-level. “I need to speak with your…Chichi-ue for a moment. Will you go sit down and wait for me? I promise I’ll be back soon.”

“Kaa-san…” Rei hesitated, before continuing, “That man is really my otou-san?”

“Chichi-ue, Rei-kun,” Sakura corrected. She felt Madara’s eyes on her with nerve-wracking clarity. She knew Madara rather well, all things considered, and she knew that he wouldn’t accept a less formal title like “otou-san”. After all, he had been the head of the Uchiha clan and when in such a traditional clan, formality would be very important.

Rei nodded in quiet acquiescence.

“Alright. I’ll be right back, okay?”

She was surprised how quiet Madara was being—it was odd that he wouldn’t immediately attempt to assert dominance over the situation, but she wasn’t going to complain.

Straightening her back and standing tall, she turned to Madara and nodded. She would have to ascertain Madara’s intentions, but if he wanted to be a father figure in Rei’s life…well, the kinks would need to be ironed out because she wasn’t going to let him be a negative influence, but they could certainly work something out. There were lines she would draw that would have to be abided by…

Remembering Madara’s penchant for making his own decisions and actions regardless of others’ wellbeing, she felt her stomach start to knot. It had been a long time since she had seen him—almost six years, in fact—but she supposed for him, it had been closer to a century. Which brought her back to the question, _how the hell was he alive?_

That could be answered later. For now, she had to figure out what he wanted from her and Rei and what his intentions were towards her and her son.

Madara gestured away from camp and she nodded, following his lead. He was being shockingly tame considering the situation—for one, he wasn’t just dragging her away. He had let her deal with Rei on her own terms and hadn’t interrupted once to override her authority.

Her heart pounding with fear—she didn’t want to go too far away from camp in case he decided to try anything sexual, even though she was fairly certain now that she could defend herself in that situation—and her stomach in knots, Sakura walked back to the clearing she had been in before Madara went after Rei. The man in question followed sedately, silent in a way that made her worry about ulterior motives.

There was nothing to be done. She had to have answers.

 

**5.**

They reached a small clearing, Sakura glancing back every so often to check on Rei and also to keep an eye on the dangerous predator behind her. They were only about fifty yards from her camp, so Rei was in easy distance to defend should anything go wrong.

Sakura had to admit to herself that she anticipated things going south very, very quickly. While there wasn’t much she wouldn’t do for her son, being raped again was not one of them. There was only so much abuse she would withstand, and reliving the experiences that had brought Rei into the world was beyond that limit.

She stopped and turned to Madara then. His eyes gleamed in the moonlight, and she couldn’t help the compulsory frown that she felt upon seeing him. Just making eye contact with him made her tremble, but a few deep breaths to calm herself allowed her to keep her composure.

“I’m going to ask again,” she said coldly. “What do you want?”

Madara raised a singular eyebrow, clearly unimpressed. However, he humored her, and replied, “I want my family.”

Sakura bristled at this, because she and Rei were in no way his family. But Rei would want that, wouldn’t he? The reminder hurt, and scared her, but she had very little choice in this matter.

Through gritted teeth, Sakura replied, “I suppose that’s reasonable.” It was one of the most difficult things she’d ever had to say. “But while Rei might be amenable to your presence, I’m afraid I’m not.”

Madara watched her with calculating eyes, and Sakura couldn’t help but feel like he was reading her, seeing right through her words. Just because she didn’t want him around didn’t mean she would deny her son his father’s presence.

“And you would keep our son away from his father?” he asked her then, and it yet again brought into question just how powerful the Uchiha doujutsu was.

Sakura clenched her jaw at the term ‘our son’, but knew that Rei wouldn’t see it the way she saw it. Rei had always wanted his father, and who was she, as his mother, to deny him that, regardless of the bad blood between her and Madara?

It caused a pit in her chest, an ache, but she knew that she was strong enough to give her son his father, and so she would do it. Anything for Rei.

She exhaled hard from her nose and said, “No, I wouldn’t. Rei wants his father, regardless of whether you deserve to raise him or not.” Madara’s eyebrow quirked threateningly at her words, but she wouldn’t take them back. “That’s why we’re going to discuss this like _equals_ and come to an agreement that works for the whole…” She choked as the word came out. “ _…_ family.”

Madara nodded concisely in agreement. She wasn’t sure if he even understood the concept of equality between two people, but she wasn’t going to back down on this.

There was a long silence during which neither spoke, Sakura trying to gather her thoughts and prepare to lay down her rules, and while Madara seemed to wait patiently with a blank expression. She wondered what was going through his mind right then—was he going to ignore everything she said and take what he wanted like usual, or was he actually going to treat her like her own person, as the mother of their son?

After a deep breath, she finally spoke. “If you’re willing to follow my conditions, then I’ll allow you to stay and raise Rei with me. Otherwise, we’re going to vanish off the face of the earth and you’ll never find us.”

Madara seemed to contemplate this, and then nodded to show he was listening. His silence bothered her more than she cared to admit.

“First off, no means _no,_ ” she said in the strongest voice she could. “You will not touch me without my permission. At all. The moment you do, the deal is off.”

She waited to be interrupted, to be denied her request, but he simply looked at her expectantly, waiting. Now that the hard part was over, she could really get going.

“I want Rei to be a civilian, but I know you won’t allow that. I understand you’ll probably train him, and as long as you never require him to kill anyone, I won’t fuss. You’ll do an even share of the housework, and you’ll treat me with respect. I don’t want Rei to get the wrong idea about how to treat a woman, and if you understand anything about our dynamic, Rei will not tolerate you mistreating me. If you want any kind of relationship with our son, you’ll take that to heart right now.

“I get an equal say in all household decisions. In some domains, my word trumps yours. Anything concerning Rei can be negotiated, but if I’m ignored or overruled without compromise, then the deal is off, too. He’s just as much my son as yours,” _if not more,_ she thought to herself. “And as time passes, this deal will be negotiable as well if something turns out to be not working.”

“This all seems to be very much in your favor,” Madara commented. She couldn’t read his tone, but she knew she didn’t like the words, so it didn’t really matter.

“Yes, it is,” Sakura replied, and tried to figure out a non-confrontational way to phrase her words. “In the past, I didn’t get much of a say in things. This time around, if we’re going to make this work, I’m going to make sure my voice is heard and _respected_.”

At this, there was silence, and Sakura waited with bated breath for his response.

* * *

 

He wasn’t sure whether to be angered or proud.

Obviously he would be angered by Sakura denying him her body. At least, that was his initial reaction—but as she spoke, he heard something in her that he had never heard before. Or perhaps he had ignored it and only time and age had brought him the mellowness he needed to be able to accept it.

He had known, on some level, that he had hurt her, and he knew he hadn’t liked it. But at the time, in his youth, he had been rash. He hadn’t taken her feelings into account, and had been angered when she tried to express her feelings in any way she could.

He recalled his first thoughts of possessiveness and anger upon realizing that she might have had a child with another man, and how he had been willing to kill the child if it meant erasing the existence of her love for another man. He still felt that way, but given that Rei truly was his, and the fact that he could hear the hurt in her words, the pain and the anger, and she was still compromising for the sake of their son…it brought up a new feeling for her that he thought perhaps he had never truly had for her.

Respect.

Respect for a true mother, a woman who would do anything for her child. A woman who was willing to face someone she had been deeply hurt by just so that she could give her son his father. He had always known Sakura was strong, but for her to show it in such an admirable way…

Well, he could appreciate this kind of strength beyond all others. So he supposed he was proud.

The rest of her requests were not unreasonable, when looked at through this new lens. And he told himself that in time, she would come to accept him as not just the father of her child, but also as a husband. But he would take it slow, and he would show her that he wasn’t going to hurt her again.

So he agreed to her terms, and was taken aback when she burst into tears.

At the sound of her sobs, Rei came rushing towards the clearing to make sure his mother was alright. Sakura just embraced him, still crying, and told him that everything was going to be okay now, and to go say hi to his father. He noticed that she tripped up on the word ‘father’, but he knew that it would take some time to adjust.

And he had the rest of time to be with her—the Edo Tensei would never let him die if he didn’t wish it, and when she and Rei died, he’d bring them back just the same way—so there was no rush.

When his son walked over to him and bowed formally, introducing himself as Haruno Rei, Madara could only quirk his lips and remind himself that no Uchiha child would go by any other name than Uchiha. And when he told the boy this, Rei pouted, and Madara could only chastise him and tell him that Uchiha _did not_ pout.

Sakura watched on, and a strangled laugh tore through her when Rei continued to pout.

All in all, it seemed like they possibly could, in time, be a family.

 

**6.**

When Sakura died at age eighty-six, with her sort-of husband, son, daughter-in-law, three grandchildren and their respective husbands and wife, and five great-grandchildren by her side, she left with no regrets.

After five years of living with Madara, she had finally decided that he could stay. He had proven to be an admirable father for Rei, and had defied all her expectations by treating her as more than just an equal—in some cases, he fully deferred to her without question. It took a while for her accept that perhaps he was being sincere, and even longer to develop any sort of trust in him. However, to her dying day, she’d never feel that she had ever fully trusted him, not like she could have had he not raped her, but they had developed a decent rapport.

It turned out that he was unable to rape her again, anyways. The Edo Tensei had no need for procreation or arousal, and a dead person couldn’t spawn life. He had no urges to touch her sexually, and she would never want him to touch her sexually again, regardless of how close they came.

Which, to her despair and eventually acceptance, happened. It was hard not to become close with someone you shared your life and your son with.

She grew old while he stayed young, and for some reason, he stuck around. For a long time, she had believed that once she hit forty, he would move on to greener pastures. Such was not the case. In his own demented way, he _did_ love her, and while she never loved him back, her companionship was enough for him. Perhaps if they’d had another two hundred years together, she could move past that.

But she could not in only sixty-something years, and so Sakura was convinced that it had not been meant to happen.

Rei cried when she closed her eyes for the last time, her daughter-in-law Aishine teared up quietly, her grandchildren bawled openly, and her great-grandchildren grieved as was appropriate for their ages. Rei and Aishine had fallen deeply in love quickly and without question in their youth, and the children had not seemed to stop coming. Then, with three grandchildren in their twenties, there had been no end to the young ones running around the house.

It had been a full life, filled with both hardship and happiness.

Sometimes she’d still wonder what would have happened if it had been Tobirama and not Madara who had given her Rei, but in the end, she’d decided that things had turned out how they were supposed to, regardless of whether she liked it or not. And so she drifted off into that deep sleep, content with how her life had played out.

And then she saw him, the love of her life.

“Hello, Sakura,” his deep voice said. He looked no older than the day she had met him, and when she looked down at herself, she realized she looked the same as he.

“Tobirama…” she whispered. “What-what’s going on? I’m supposed to be dead…”

“You are,” he replied, and if his voice was colder than she remembered, she wished she wouldn’t notice.

There was nothing here in this blackness, just her and Tobirama drifting in nothingness. She’d wanted to see him again, but not like this.

“I’m sorry,” she said after a long silence. She looked down at her feet. “I’m sorry I didn’t choose you.”

Tobirama laughed gruffly, the sound not as cold as she’d thought it would be. “It wouldn’t have mattered. We were star-crossed, Sakura. Nothing could have ever come of it, although I wish Rei had been mine.”

Sakura’s gaze shot to his. “How do you know about Rei?” _And what else did he know?_

“When one dies, if they had attachments that they were unable to let go of, they have the unique ability to watch over them until they find their peace. I admit…seeing you with _him_ , I haven’t found peace until now.”

Sakura nodded. “I agree. You don’t…you don’t know how much I wished it had been you.”

“It never would have,” he said, although he clearly agreed with her. “I would never have wished you happiness with that bastard, but it seems fate would not have it my way. In the end, I am just glad you didn’t live the rest of your life in pain and bitterness like I did.”

Tears dripped from her eyes unexpectedly. “I’m so sorry…” she whispered. And then, in a fit of emotion, she ran towards him and embraced him.

He easily embraced her back. “It’s alright, Sakura. I’ve found my peace. Now you just have to find yours.”

It was then that Sakura realized the body—no, the soul—in her arms was fading away. She gripped tighter. “Where are you going? What’s going on?” she shrieked frantically.

“I’ve found my peace,” Tobirama reiterated. His voice was growing ever disembodied, until it echoed. “But you still have to find yours.”

“My peace is here! With you!” she cried angrily, but his body had disappeared, and soon she was only hugging herself and not her love.

The love she had never been able to let go of—apparently not even in death.

And then she felt a tug, gentle at first and then stronger as she resisted it. What was going on? She felt herself being pulled downwards, and vaguely wondered in her panic if she was going to hell for what she had done to Tobirama.

Suddenly, she found herself in a physical body, looking at her family, whole and huge as it had been for the last twenty years.

“Obaa-chan!” came seven echoing cries. Sakura felt herself being embraced by everyone except Rei, Aishine…and Madara. Whose fingers were still in the final hand seal of the Edo Tensei.

“Tadaima,” Sakura whispered, her eyes never leaving Madara’s.

“Okaeri.”

It seemed she had a very long time indeed to find her peace.

**fin.**


End file.
